Letters from Taybeh: Lenten Greetings 2017

I started my day by lighting a candle at the Byzantine ruins of Saint George Church asking the Lord to grant all of you a Blessed Holy Great Lenten journey. May the Lord bless you with many fruits of the Holy Spirit. And, although I cleaned out my refrigerator of all the cheese and dairy in front of me, I hope to clean my heart during this very sacred time of year. Unfortunately eating all the cheese you can eat until midnight in order to have a “Clean Monday” is not the best habit in the world.

May you Clean Monday be blessed, holy, healthy and a wonderful new chance for eternal life. I had an amazing day last week visiting a wonderful elderly aunt who is a sister at the Mount of Olives, and for the first time in thirty years, I found the front gate of the monastery open the moment I drove up. It was the greatest feeling in the world to easily enter this beautiful holy space where our Lord Ascended to Heaven. I truly felt I was in Paradise with the stunning gardens and gorgeous view of Jerusalem.

Thus, it came to my mind how beautiful it will be to find the door open this same way when I go to God.

Actually, we are all walking to Paradise, life is so short, therefore let us walk with the Light of Christ always,

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I should be wishing everyone a most blessed Holy Great Lenten journey since its that special time of year where we focus putting Christ first in our lives but I find myself doing crazy things. I should share how beautiful it is to be walking on the same land where our Lord stayed before his crucifixion but Iam speechless when I attend the midnight liturgy in Jerusalem and I cannot seem to write anything. It is beyond words to be in the most sacred place in the world for a Christian. The very spot which proclaims the Good News of eternal life with Christ’s Holy Resurrection!

I should thank all of the supporters of the Taybeh Education Fund because we were blessed last Sunday to have His Eminence Archbishop Theodosios (Atala Hana) give the college scholarships but I was overwhelmed with thoughts that life is too short as we prayed for our cousin Osama who tragically lost his life to cancer.